November Macintosh Shareware

This month our primary focus is on Internet tools but there is one other utility that all Mac users with find useful. For Web designers we've included a web site 'sucker', a background texture designer and a utility for generating thumbnail pages of your images. For all Internet users there's a sophisticated PPP monitor and a major update of two essential Mac archiving tools. Finally, there's a utility for monitoring those too oft troublesome software installations.

By Steve Cooper

Software of this kind doesn't require a fancy interface and Web Devil doesn't give you one. All you need to do is to specify a target URL and click the 'Suck Web Page' button. Web Devil will download the index page, scan it for links and steadily download the site complete with images, textures and any linked items.

To avoid hefty and endless download operations Web devil lets you define the URL depth to which you want the site mined and has a filter mechanism that allows you to exclude certain files (eg. image files) from the download operation. You can also configure Web Devil to adjust the links in each site you download so that you can browse the entire site offline from within your download folder. Unfortunately, this will not work with sites that use absolute references.

Web Devil is scriptable, recordable and implements excellent Balloon Help. It should be noted that while we didn't experience any problems using Web Devil through a commercial proxy server it will not download secure sites and it may have problems with some firewalls.

As you might guess, the thumbnails are arranged in a HTML table. PhotoPage lets you specify the basic dimensions and properties of each table it generates. If neccessary can further refine the page design using a WYSIWYG editor such as Claris HomePage, Adobe PageMill or any other editor you are familiar with.

Texture Magic can create two distinct kinds of textures -- those based on photographic images and those created mechanically from simple design elements or gradients. For photographic images there is a specialised set of tools to help you create seamless repeating textures as well as a range of paint tools and filters to assist in refining the effect.

To create mechanical textures you can start with a gradient, or a design of your own, and then call on a series of effects to apply shapes, textures and a range of geometric distortions. Your design can then be offset and recombined with the original using a number of additive effects.

Using the various tools and the program's presets provides a huge number of striking variations. Once you begin experimenting with the dozens of available settings there would seem to be no limit apart from those imposed by good taste!

Texture Magic enables the graphic-illiterate to create pleasing and probably unique textures in just a couple of minutes, though you are likely to spend much longer in delighted experimentation. For shareware, Texture Magic is not cheap but, you may just decide it's worth the asking price.

NetStatus Pro incorporates a Configuration Manager that functions much like Apple's Location Manager, switching TCP/IP, PPP and Modem control panels simultaneously. (It does not, however, switch Internet Config or Internet control panel configurations.)

To complement this set of functions there is a Time Viewer window that allows you to monitor accumulated connection numbers and time, as well as upload and download quantities per configuration or in total. NetStatus Pro's preferences include an alarm feature to warn you when the ISP allowance (by session, month or year) for any one configuration has been reached.

NetStatus Pro may well be the best way to manage multiple ISP accounts with different pricing plans as long as you remember to switch Internet Config or Internet control panel settings separately. Being an application with no extension component it may also be less troublesome than some alternatives. And there is nothing to stop it being used in conjunction with the Location Manger for more complete inter-ISP switching.

Both utilities employ a drag-and-drop style interface -- simply drag the target file onto the icon of the utility and the appropriate action is performed.

StuffIt Expander, which is freeware, can decode and decompress the following file types: StuffIt (.sit, .sea), Private File (.pf), Disk Image (.img, .smi), BinHex (.hqx), MacBinary (.bin), UU (.uu, .uue), Zip/GZip (.zip, .gz, .tgz).

DropStuff with Expander Enhancer adds: MIME/Base 64 (.mime), Compact Pro (.cpt), Arc (.arc), AppleLink Package (.pkg), LHa (.lha, .lzh), Unix Compress (.z, .taz). If all you want to do is to expand MIME and Compact Pro files you don't need to pay a fee. If you wish to use any of the remaining functions (including compression) you will need to purchase a shareware license.

Some problems were encountered with v5.0 of these utilities but, the latest versions appear to be trouble-free and StuffIt Expander is required to handle files compressed using the Stuffit version 5 compressor. Expander 5.1.3 will also handle files compressed with earlier versions. StuffIt files are becoming very common on the Internet.

Using Installer Observer is quites simple. You let the utility scan the contents of folders inside your System Folder and it saves the scan result (in Observer's own format). After running an installation application you repeat the exercise and view lists of all the items that were installed, removed, or moved. Although folders outside the System Folder are not covered these are usually easy enough to spot. Removed items are not rescued by this process, it merely observes the installation without interfering but, at least you know which items need to be re-installed from master disks.

It should be remembered that installing with an absolute minimum of extensions and control panels active is still a good idea and will prevent many items from being removed inappropriately. Still, Installer Observer is an excellent tool for keeping watch on those you can't deactivate and on all the other System Folder items including fonts, preferences and the like.